Recipe: Turkey Tetrazzini

So my friend Patti sent me an email and said,

"Hey Mrs. Super-housewife. I am looking for a recipe for dinner tonight. Do you know of something off the top of your head that uses ground turkey/meat and noodles? Preferably baked, but in the skillet would be good too." 

 (I couldn't resist including the oh-so-lovely complement...) I didn't have a recipe that was bake only, but I do have a Turkey Tetrazzini that is a little skillet and a little baking. Oh, and it's oh so yummy!

I wanted to know what Tetrazzini meant, imagining it's Italian and means something like "super duper delicious." Turns out it is an entirely American dish named after an opera star, Luisa Tetrazzini. Why someone decided to name a pasta dish after an opera star, I'll never know. But that doesn't make it any less tasty. All that being said, here's what you'll need:

10 ounces mushrooms, sliced thin (about 4 cups)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cups milk

2 cups chicken broth

1/4 cup dry white wine (or sherry)

10 ounces spaghetti

1pound ground turkey

1 can of green peas (drained)

2/3 cup Parmesan cheese

1/3 cup panko bread crumbs

Don't be intimidated by the long list of ingredients. Most of it I already had around the house anyway so that makes it pretty easy to throw together. So here's what you need to do.

Mushrooms and ground turkey browning together.

First, preheat the oven to 400*F. Put 4 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet and toss in the sliced mushrooms. Sautee them on a medium-medium high heat until they start to cook down a little (about 3-5 minutes), toss in the ground turkey. Cook until the turkey is cooked through and the liquid has cooked out some (about 5 more minutes). Sprinkle the flour throughout the pot and stir into the turkey and mushrooms. Stir well and let the flour cook for about 3 minutes. At this point, add the milk, chicken broth, and white wine/sherry. Bring to a boil, stir in 1/3 of the Parmesan cheese and can of drained peas and let simmer for about 5-7 minutes, until the sauce begins to thicken a little.

Golden brown and delicious!

While the mushroom sauce is simmering, start a large pot of boiling water to cook your pasta. When the water comes to a boil, add your pasta and follow the directions, cooking the pasta to al dente. Drain the pasta and dump into a buttered (or non-stick cooking spray) 9x13 shallow casserole dish. After the mushroom sauce has thickened slightly, dump it over the pasta and stir a little to incorporate. Sprinkle the 1/3 cup Parmesan that's left and the 1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs over the top of the casserole.

Put in the 400* oven and let bake for 30 minutes, or until bubbly and golden brown.

Here's a couple of notes on the recipe: When I was a kid, my Mom made an AMAZING Turkey Tetrazzini which is kind of what I was going for when I made this. My version came out just fine but I used a dry white wine instead of the sherry she usually used. (Because we live in a "damp" county, our nearest liquor store is 11 miles away and I didn't have any sherry on hand and didn't feel like driving to get some!) If you have sherry on hand, I would highly recommend it. It really gives it that classic Tetrazzini taste. If you don't have it, a dry white wine will work just fine.

The finished product is so good!

Also, this recipe works SO WELL with Thanksgiving leftover turkey. Instead of adding the ground turkey to cook with the mushrooms, wait till the mushrooms are done cooking and add the turkey (shredded or in small chunks) just after you add all the liquids. The leftover turkey is already cooked, so really, it just needs to be in there long enough to warm through.